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Sean

"I don’t think this is a good idea," I protest, watching my best friend in the world as she paints her face I think she’s even more beautiful when she doesn’t wearhot Her legs are a h that the round swells of her brsts are taunting me Look at me, Sean, you stupid fucker You can’t touch the upher eyes as she applies heavy coats of mascara to her lashes The brush slides slowly down the miniscule strands of hair, and she sits back, bats her lashes, and looks at ue out

"You ruuess the nuet to kiss her He’ll get to kiss irl Well, she doesn’t know she’sas I can remember I can’t recall a tiht of so in ins to paint her pretty, full, perfectly kissable lips with a horridly sexy shade of bright red She sether and makes a kissy face toward the mirror I can’t watch anymore I just can’t I fall back across the bed in her dor to myself

It’s not fair that she can undo me with a simple kiss at a mirror when she doesn’t even see me as a real, live, flesh-and-blood rew up next door to her She seeet that I’m the one who held her hair back as she threw up her first few shots of tequila She forgets that I’hts of stairs when I ed her when Dusty Forbes du dance I’, by the way--standing alone by the hile I retrieved Lacey from the ladies’ rooets that I saw her nad All right, so she wasn’t coned bikinis with those little triangles that cover the naughty bits should be given a fking medal Or buried six feet under I’m not sure which

The bed dips as she sits down on it, and she liftsbeautiful with her strawberry-blond hair hanging down over her shoulders It looks like she’s been rolling around in bed with someone, but I know she hasn’t because I watched her work for an hour to get it to look like that

Her hip touchesherself on her forearo hard i at et the shock of a lifetiht now But she doesn’t think of me like that She said so She said, loudly and clearly, that she wouldn’t go there with s didn’t work out She needs me, she says, as more than an ex-boyfriend She needs ood God, I want her

"What?" I grouse

"Stop pouting," she says quietly She pushes up off her propped ar into runt and adjust her elbow But I don’t want her to et, I’ll take it I set my hand on her nad knee and drairls on it with reen eyes blink at aze skitters around my face "It’s just a kiss," she says softly "Why are you all torn up about a kiss?"

She’s studying me way too closely "I’ ever since I told you about the fundraiser, Sean," she says "What’s your problem? It’s for charity, for God’s sake" She lays her free hand on her chest "My kiss is going to feed victi my part for a better community"

I look down at her ers into her hair, pull her to ht here and now But I won’t Because she doesn’t want er," I bite out "Don’t do it"

"I’ve kissed men before, Sean," she reminds me I wish she would keep that shit to herself

"What if it’s souy with really bad breath?" I ask

"What if it’s sood?" she asks She s up so prettily Her fingertips touch htly, and she traces the tattoos that decorate my arm from wrist to shoulder Every hair on my body stands up, and I lift ers with hers so she’ll stop "If I’m lucky, he’ll be all tatted up, too" She looks off into the distance, her gaze no longer on me

"Honey, if you want to kiss someone who looks like me and smells like me, I think I can accoer"

Her eyes shift back to ut She looks intointo ive it to her, if she wanted it But it’s not me she wants She’s made that abundantly clear

"If I ever kissed you, I would never be able to stop," I say quietly My voice sounds like it’s been dragged down a gravel road and back, and I fking hate that she can affect me this way

"Prove it," she says, and then she licks her cherry-red lips She doesn’t break eye contact

I move quickly This is the first tiut tellsto take it back I cup her neck with s her flush against ainst ht Her lips are so close to mine that her inhale is my exhale My hand quivers as it holds her nape, so I work ers into the hair at the back of her head I hold her still and look into her green eyes

"Tell ot me, honey," I whisper She shivers and inches upcloser to mine So close Just a little closer I can almost taste her

"I want you to kiss me," she whispers "Please"

Suddenly, the door opens, and Lacey ju us in one final, powerful leap Fuck I pull the pillow fro up on the side of the bed

Friday, Lacey’s roo from Lacey to me and back

Lacey’s breaths are heavy, and I can tell she’s upset about being caught like that "Great tiet it on?" Friday asks, her grin cheeky She points to Lacey and then at oes back and forth "Look at you two," she crows Her gaze narrows "What did I o to It’s called Reed’s, and I’ve known Logan, one of the artists, since we started college He and Friday are pretty tight "Where’s Logan?" I ask We need to change the subject "Did he come with you?"

She nods and jerks a thuan’s broad shoulders fill the doorway He steps back and his girlfriend, Ean says Logan’s deaf, but he lost his hearing when he was thirteen so he has really great speech He’s also very intuitive, and he’s really good at reading situations "You could cut the tension in here with a knife," he says He looks back and forth between Lacey andwhen he cracks a smile "Did you cut the cheese, dude?" he asks "Because she looks like you did so that tilted her world on its side"

Lacey arches a brow atthe ball into my court I can lob it back or I can choose to let it lie there "So at her and not at hie out of the corner of my eye "Sorry," Ihim when I talk, but I wanted to watch Lacey’s face Her cheeks are rosy, and she’s shuffling her feet I want to rewind and go back to where ere before Friday burst into the rooan says to Lacey

"Thank you," she in to describe hoonderful she is She’s witty and she’s so do et the fk out of here

"A likely excuse," Friday says But the s o with you," Logan says as he gets to his feet He leans over and kisses E her hand in the fabric and pulling him down so he can kiss her for real "I’ll be back in a little bit," Logan tells her